The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said the Fiscal Incentives Review Board’s (FIRB) new policy of raising the investment capital threshold for projects to be approved by Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) to P15 billion from P1 billion will help empower IPAs to grant tax incentives to investors and generate more investments.
“The PCCI welcomed this recent issuance of FIRB. This would mean more projects will have to be decided quickly at the IPA level without going through the approval of FIRB, which became the bottleneck for incentives," said PCCI President Enunina V. Mangio in a statement on Feb. 19.
On Feb. 17, the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) issued FIRB Resolution No. 003-24 increasing the investment capital threshold of projects delegated to IPAs to P15 billion and below, from P1 billion and below.
All application for tax incentives with investment capital of more than P15 billion will remain with the FIRB.
The amendment also complements the PPP Code of the Philippines, that facilitates the approval of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects with a cost of P15 billion or higher by the inter-agency National Economic and Development Board upon recommendation of the Investment Coordination Committee.
"The proposed increase in the threshold will give greater responsibility and accountability to the IPAs as more projects will be under their jurisdiction," stated the resolution.
The FIRB and PCCI cited the necessity of the policy to promote the ease of doing business (EODB) in the country.
“One of the bottlenecks we have in government is the ease of doing business. We need to streamline our processes and policies so we become an attractive investment destination,” said Mangio.
She also remarked that the policy may entice both local and foreign investors to enter more big-ticket projects through PPPs.
Booming sectors that could contribute greatly to the Philippine economy are agribusiness, Information Technology- Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) and creative industries, manufacturing, mining and mineral resources, and tourism.